Saturday, July 23, 2011

California

I'll have to blame my lack of posting on having a fantastically fun summer! I've been so tired by the end of the day that I have no energy left to blog. :) But alas, it's time... on July 5th I set off on a jet plane yet again to visit my dear friend Tawnee, who served with me at Haven of Hope in Ghana. It was such a wonderful reunion filled with good conversations, plenty of laughs, lots of reminiscing, and enjoying God's beautiful creation. We spent 3 nights camping outside of Yosemite National Park, and that was amazing. We slept under the stars all wrapped up in our sleeping bags. The days were warm, but the temperature really dropped at night-time. Here are some pictures of our time together:We went on a hike one day and that waterfall in the background is our final destination. (Warning: Objects in picture are farther than they appear!) :)

Lovin' the campfire food! We felt like such good girl scouts with our campfire skills! ;)

The first full day we decided to be adventurous and go whitewater rafting. Here are our feelings after the safety briefing before heading out on the river. I consider myself a pretty brave and adventurous person, but I was so scared! However, I jumped that hurdle of fear and went for it, and boy, was I glad I did. After the first intense set of rapids, my adrenaline was pumping and I was able to relax a bit more. (We did have one guy fall out in the raft ahead of us and one whole raft behind us flipped on some big rapids, but thankfully everyone was okay.) It was not only extremely fun, but we were surrounding by amazing scenery and I really couldn't think of a better way to spend a morning! :) Definitely a highlight of the trip!

In front of Yosemite Falls...

We thought we were ready for a dip-- until we felt the frigid mountain water! :) This was as far as we made it!

Tunnel View

As we were grocery shopping, we began to see a pattern. Our cart was being filled with many items strikingly similar to our grocery lists in Ghana! I guess that just reaffirms my idea that Ghana living was a lot like camping. We just had to get a picture with our Velveeta-- a staple (delicacy) while in Ghana! :)

Here we are on the Mist Trail on the way up to the waterfall you saw in the first picture. We were soaked by the time we got to the top, but it was so refreshing!

After our Yosemite adventures we checked out Balboa Beach on Sunday. The waves were so strong, so we had a lot of fun playing around in the water...another adrenaline-pumping activity!

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About Me

I'm a globe-trotter on a mission-- following God as He leads me to love and teach in His name. I recently spent 14 months at Haven of Hope, a children's home in Ghana (www.ecmafrica.org), and will be headed back to Hong Kong to finish off the rest of the school year teaching there.